Point of View and Grammar: Structural Patterns of Subjectivity in American English Conversation

Point of View and Grammar: Structural Patterns of Subjectivity in American English Conversation

Files

Description

This book proposes that subjective expression shapes grammatical and lexical patterning in American English conversation. Analyses of structural and functional properties of English conversational utterances indicate that the most frequent combinations of subject, tense, and verb type are those that are used by speakers to personalize their contributions, not to present unmediated descriptions of the world. These findings are informed by current research and practices in linguistics which argue that the emergence, or conventionalization, of linguistic structure is related to the frequency with which speakers use expressions in discourse. The use of conversational data in grammatical analysis illustrates the local and contingent nature of grammar in use and also raises theoretical questions concerning the coherence of linguistic categories, the viability of maintaining a distinction between semantic and pragmatic meaning in analytical practice, and the structural and social interplay of speaker point of view and participant interaction in discourse. [Amazon.com]

ISBN

9781588112323

Publication Date

2002

Publisher

John Benjamins Publishing

City

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Keywords

English language, American English dialect, Grammar, Interpersonal relations, Conversation, Predicate, Syntax

Disciplines

Language Description and Documentation | Syntax

Point of View and Grammar: Structural Patterns of Subjectivity in American English Conversation

Catalog Record

Share

COinS